


til you’re warm again

by tidelinear



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Domestic, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-16
Updated: 2018-11-16
Packaged: 2019-08-24 08:32:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16636493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tidelinear/pseuds/tidelinear
Summary: Charity heads home at the end of the night.





	til you’re warm again

Charity takes care to be quiet when she eases open the door to the bedroom.  
  
The curtains aren't drawn — Vanessa must have been exhausted when she got home. Moonlight slants through the window, outlining the shape of Vanessa under the sheets. It takes a second longer for her eyes to adjust to the low light, and she can finally pick out Vanessa’s hair, spilling over onto Charity’s side of the bed. Her braid will be half undone by morning and Vanessa will give her a half-smile when Charity runs a hand through her hair, unravelling the braid entirely because there is nothing better than the sight of Vanessa first thing in the morning, sleepy-eyed and haloed with gold.

She wishes she’d been here when Vanessa was putting her hair up in the braid, when Vanessa was moisturizing and double-checking on the boys, making sure they’re down for the night. She can almost hear Vanessa’s warm _you’re here now, aren’t you_ in response to her thoughts and feels a smile pull at her mouth.

Her bedtime routine is much quicker than Vanessa’s — brush teeth, wash face, kick off boots in the corner of the room, wince at the small pile of boots accumulated in the same corner knowing Vanessa will surely moan the face off her for it in the morning, again, _but at least they’re out of the way babe, no more tripping over them on the way to the loo, yeah_ , change into pajamas, and finally, finally —

Charity stubs her toe on the bedside table.

“ _Shit_ ,” she hisses, to a muffled snort of amusement. She startles reflexively. “Could’ve let me know you’d been awake this whole time,” Charity mutters.

“Sorry,” Vanessa mumbles. Her voice is heavy, like she hasn’t been awake long at all. Charity sighs. And she’d tried so hard to be quiet this time. Vanessa rolls over to face her when Charity gets under the covers, and the smile she can just make out dulls the pain in Charity’s toe the tiniest bit.

“Don't you just love it when I have closing shift at the pub,” Charity murmurs, settling close to Vanessa.

“Barging into bed with cold feet and colder hands,” Vanessa replies, pressing a smile into Charity’s shoulder. Charity hums when the smile turns into a kiss, then another.

“I’d have cold hands anyroad if I’d been here when you were getting ready for bed,” Charity points out. “Wish I had been,” she adds, striving to make it casual even as she anticipates the warmth of Vanessa’s response.

“Here now, aren’t you?” Vanessa says, and Charity grins at the ceiling, awarding herself ten points. She settles into her pillow, smoothing a hand up Vanessa’s arm. Vanessa traces _love_ over and over into Charity’s stomach in looping cursive, clumsy with her non-dominant hand. “Like knowing you’re coming home to me,” Vanessa continues, and something in Charity’s chest still goes tight in surprise at the sentiment, at the sincerity behind it. She turns her head to press _I love you_ into Vanessa’s hair, and again when she feels Vanessa’s breathing even out beside her, her whole body heavier against Charity as she drifts off.

Charity’s eyes slip shut, Vanessa steady and warm at her side. She sleeps.

**Author's Note:**

> title from over and over by the goo goo dolls


End file.
